Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Seems like Wednesdays are going to be my day off from work, which might just translate into me having the time to get a morning blog post put together. Life around here is on a hectic pace and it doesn't show signs of slowing down anytime soon. However having a day off means I can schedule a hair appointment, catch up on household bills and throw in some laundry. We all have Sundays off so that is the day I try to do the food shopping before the football game game comes on. We do love our New England Patriots and I like to cook chili or wings or both. Anyway we get new items in the shop every week, and these embroidered linen owl pillows just came in yesterday! They are really cool! One is mostly in greens and greys and the other is in tans beiges and rust.

See our leopard chair with the tan owl?

And see the orange side table?

Its our Moroccan table in Barcelona Chalk Paint®.

We created a masculine vignette using a lot of our newer accessories

including rustic wood pedestals in two sizes and some grey terracotta capital pedestals.

A great little collection of dog statues in washed grey sit on the pedestals.

We threw in a few of our old color coordinated vintage books to round out the setting.

Oh and a big grey clock...I love how it turned out!

I am a big dog lover and was so pleased with this dog statue collection.

Just been really digging grey mixed with natural browns and tans

in home decorating.

Here is a mixed vignette around a great old chest in black and green that Justin styled.

World traveler bits with vintage farmhouse accessories....

.mix it up and just repeat the colors in your accessories to get a pleasing effect.

A grand trumeau mirror arrived yesterday as well~

this is a reproduction with a good price point.

You know I love most things French, and this mirror delivers!

On the home front, Justin and Madison moved into our basement apartment.

It had been slowly getting filled up with junk Daves stuff.

We cleaned it out bit by bit

and the last remaining area was the living room space.

So on Sunday, our day off, the guys

got together and moved all the stuff out and sorted it and put it away

in the garage and all

of a sudden Justin and Madison had a real place to live!!

They already started painting the walls

and have settled on a mink brown and white color scheme.

I think I will get Justin on here to guest post about all of the changes

that they are making~he has a defined style of decorating

which is pretty cool. You got to see it in the Boston shop,

and so you can imagine which direction he is going with his new pad.

Madison and I offer our opinions, but its clearly his project

to turn this space into a home for the both of them!

Cannot wait to see it finished.

Looks like Sundays will be the day for getting projects done.

Last night was Colins 22nd birthday, so we do what we always

do on family birthdays, no matter your age~we head to Polcaris

for a pizza, fried calamari and salad. Being a Tuesday night

we thought we would walk right in...but apparently it is Kids Night!

And there was Jenny the Juggler in the house!

Before long she wandered away from the really little kids

and came to our table and whipped up a proper birthday hat for Colin.

It was hilarious!

And Colin is such a great sport and takes everything in stride as he always does

and was quite comfortable wearing his balloon hat.

The amazing thing was how quickly Jenny could blow up a long skinny balloon.

They are impossible to blow up. She would blow one up in 3 seconds flat!

You can see Justin is holding one and took on the challenge of trying to blow it up.

Justin blew and blew and blew....his cheeks got as big as chipmunks on steroids

and his face got beet red. Finally he got one blown up,

but he felt like he was having an aneurism!! Mr. Maison Decor

tried in vain and said he thought he might have dislodged a polyp in his throat!!

Hahh! We were well entertained by the balloon blowing at the table.

It was a very fun party I have to say, and Colin is really grown up

if he is willing to hang with his family on his birthday, wouldn't you agree?

This morning I was out in the garden, the air is turning cooler

and I had to wear a jacket as I took the dogs out for a quick walk.

A couple of tomato plants Justin put in late in the season after

he moved here are hopefully going to get the chance to have

the fruit ripen before a killing frost. Next year he wants to

put in a larger vegetable garden, which would be very nice.

Finally, a shot of Dillon and Tobey out on our walk.

I love my dogs. Sylvia the schnoodle lives in the basement apartment

and we won't see her til the end of the day when she comes upstairs to

hang out with us all after work day is done.

So thats it from the Maison Decor home and shopfront for a week in September!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

How would I know? Because I painted mine over four years ago and loved the result!

When I had a retail shop selling Chalk Paint, I was advising people

on a weekly basis on how to go about painting

kitchen cabinetry with Chalk Paint.

This before photo shows my cabinets in Maple with a polyurethane finished.

I washed the cabinets using Pinesol detergent and wiped them dry.

No sanding at all! If your cabinets are very shiny then you might give them a light

sanding, but normally this is not part of the process.

As a matter of fact when you sand you could be removing the finish that

helps seal any wood tannins so be sanding you could be exposing yourself

to having stains come through your paint job called bleeding.

If this happens to your cabinets, stop painting and apply Zinsser Clear Shellac.

One light coat of the clear shellac should be applied.

I did not shellac or sand. I just started painting as soon as the cabinets were dry.

We recommend using an Annie Sloan Paint Brush for this big project.

Get the right tools and along with this great paint and wax

you will be pleased with your results.

So what tools do you need for the job?

A great paint brush!

These brushes are natural bristle brushes and that is what you need, first and foremost.

The paint will load up into these thousands of bristles and you won't be going back and forth

between the can of paint and cabinet. These brushes have very fine soft bristles which minimized the appearance of brush strokes as well, another added advantage!

The cabinets were painted with two coats of Old White Chalk Paint.

I painted mine while they hung in place, after removing hardware.

After painting the first coat I began right away on the second coat.

Have a cup of water handy and dip the tip of your brush into the water then into the can of Chalk Paint. This helps the second coat glide on and not grab onto the first coat.

It also helps smooth out the brush strokes. If it feels like its grabbing,

just dip your tips into water and paint and you will feel the difference as you paint.

After you cover the cabinets with two coats of Chalk Paint® we

recommend waiting a day before you wax your cabinets.

Annie Sloan Soft Clear Wax is formulated to go with her paint.

It will not yellow as many protective top coats do,

so you rest assured your white will be white forever!

The wax is needed to create a durable finish so this step is a must.

Apply the wax with a wax brush for best results.

A large wax brush is going to get the wax onto your cabinets, and into the paint. This is about the amount of wax you should have on your wax brush. You will push the wax into the painted surface using a good amount of pressure. I go in a circular motion and finish off with straight strokes making sure I get the wax into the paint. Then take a soft t-shirt or other lint free cloth and wipe off any excess amount of wax. You can see if you have too much wax on your cabinet by running your finger across the surface. If you see a smear mark, there is too much wax so wipe it off with a rag. Do not rub briskly with a rag, as that is buffing and you could remove the wax entirely in sections by brisk rubbing. Just gently but firmly drag a clean cloth across your waxed surface and move on to the next cabinet to wax. We wax in sections and wipe off as we go. Do not wax the entire kitchen cabinetry and then try to wipe off or you will find it very difficult to do so as the wax has already started to set up and dry.

Since I was painting and waxing my cabinets at home alone I don't have a photo showing me doing the waxing, but here you can see how I am waxing a hutch. I have a firm grasp on the base of the brush so I can push the wax into the painted surface. The brush does a great job of going over all ridges and details, even your hardware if you choose to paint those.

Annie Sloan Soft Wax is just that~SOFT!

It will spread easily and many use too much wax because

it is easy to overload your brush.

So just add small amounts by tapping the brush into the can.

Above you can see our can of wax is getting near empty,

and the brush is sitting straight up in the can.

When you are finished waxing we recommend washing your brush with

hot water and Dawn dishwashing detergent. No soaking.

Towel off with paper towels and let air dry.

We have been doing this for years with zero bristle loss and great results.

However we don't wash our wax brush after every use,

we store it in a Nitrile surgical glove to

keep it moist for the next waxing job and it can stay in there for weeks at a time.

If you want to lightly or heavily distress your cabinets you can do so before or after waxing.

Annie likes to do it after waxing as it eliminates any dust from sanded Chalk Paint®.

But then you must reapply more wax after sanding.

I distress first, after my paint has dried,

and before I wax so that way I am only waxing once.

After distressing I will apply the wax.

A fine sanding block was used to lightly distress my cabinets.

Painting your cabinets is a do-able project and one that offers great results.

It took two quarts of Old White Chalk Paint® to do the outside of my doors.

If you are doing the inside of the doors you will use double the amount.

Each can covers about 150 square feet of coverage.

I used a little more than one can of Clear Wax for the doors.

Think about using two coats of wax on the doors or

drawers that get the most use for added protection.

My kitchen is now over four years old and I haven't re-waxed them

yet but I will be doing that soon. If you are wiping down your cabinets

you are effectively removing wax

a tiny bit at a time so re-wax your cabinets accordingly to keep them protected,

especially the cabinets used most often, like the coffee cup cabinet,

or the one for the silverware etc.

When the paint and wax have been applied it is time to buff your cabinets.

We use the Ultimate Buffing Brush and give our pieces a beautiful lustre by

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